LHS Decathlon Team Heading to Nationals

After an impressive performance at the State Tournament last month, Laramie High School's Academic Decathlon team will be heading to the national competition next week in Frisco, Texas.

This is the first year of the Academic Decathlon team at LHS, and the team is coached by English teacher Emily Lamont. The team has seven members: Aru Nair, Harley Kaligis, Caitlin Huang, Marygrace Buckner, Carlos Franco, Marisela Sanchez, and Dillon Markle.

Of her team, Lamont says that "it's not just the smart kids, they're all from different levels, so it's really great. They've become a team."

Each year, a topic is assigned to all Academic Decathlon teams across the country. After a topic is selected, information guides about art, music, social science, science, math, economics, and literature about the subject are sent for team members to study. There are also events for prepared speeches, interviews and essays. This year's topic is Africa, and next year's will be the 1960s.

The LHS team competed in those ten events in Casper on March 18 and 19, and every single member of the team won at least one medal at the tournament, and took second place overall. They were given a chance to compete nationally when the state of Wyoming won a lottery that allowed the state to send two teams instead of one.

Albany County School District provided most of the funds for the team to travel, covering their registration, flights, and hotel rooms. Additional fundraising paid for the rest of the expenses for the trip.